Windows 7 RAID or Intel RAID?

[FordGT90Concept]

I had an external 28.8 K serial WinModem until a few years ago when I finally decided I'll never use it again. XD

Not sure if it was a controller or a adapter. It was plugged into a 486DX when it was used.

 

[Aquinus]

"...in performing RAID operations..." And here is the blatant lie. RAID on these alleged AMD and Intel platforms can exist entirely without an operating system! How do I know? When I lost a drive on both Windows 2003 R2 x64 (ESB2) and Windows 2012 R2 (H87), the operating system took FOREVER to load because the Intel RST was preoccupied rebuilding the RAID1 array. The computer merely had to be on for it to be working on it.

Yeah, and if you watch HDD access, it doesn't start rebuilding until the OS loads the driver, hence why it took a long time to load. If you turned the machine on and left it at the BIOS screen or at a "OS not found" screen, it won't be rebuilding. Or better yet, an OS without the RST or what ever RAID driver you're using. The simple fact is that chipset RAID handles RAID commands at the driver level, not the hardware level like a dedicated raid controller is. From personal experience, RSTe, AMD, and nForce chipset RAID do not rebuild before RAID drivers are loaded.

Your right though, fake raid is just a term like a "true quad core", but it does describe that the RAID is fake in the sense that it makes it look like a real hardware raid controller when in reality the RAID is being offloaded to the CPU through the driver. RAID commands never make it to the chipset, that's my point.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Intel RSTe for sure does require the rebuild to be ordered from the operating system (may have changed since 2012):

I can't find much/anything on AMD.

Even so, I fail to see how this is an issue. The point of RAID is to prevent data loss. The operating system, should it be installed on the RAID, should still be accessible to perform the rebuild.

 

[AsRock]

Intel RSTe for sure does require the rebuild to be ordered from the operating system (may have changed since 2012):

I can't find much/anything on AMD.

Even so, I fail to see how this is an issue. The point of RAID is to prevent data loss. The operating system, should it be installed on the RAID, should still be accessible to perform the rebuild.

When my Raid though Intel chipset needed rebuilding the OS still booted with the drawback of the access of the drives being slower and could take hours to finish.

 

[Aquinus]

When my Raid though Intel chipset needed rebuilding the OS still booted with the drawback of the access of the drives being slower and could take hours to finish.

That's usually the case with any form of RAID. Just because your RAID is degraded doesn't mean it won't bring it up. Even if you had a real controller for RAID, it will still be sluggish during a rebuild because it's still degraded and rebuilding at the same time.

Intel RSTe for sure does require the rebuild to be ordered from the operating system (may have changed since 2012):

I can't find much/anything on AMD.

Even so, I fail to see how this is an issue. The point of RAID is to prevent data loss. The operating system, should it be installed on the RAID, should still be accessible to perform the rebuild.

Yes, I agree. My point was that chipset raid is much more like software RAID, it just hides the fact that the driver is doing it for you. Any option for RAID is better than no redundancy in my personal opinion. I was just highlighting the differences between them. Personally, I find mdadm great for mass storage but when push comes to shove, it's really about performance when it comes to what kind of thing you want to manage your RAID with, be it software, a chipset driver, or a raid controller.

 

[sltech]

You can't have your Windows partition on the same partition as a Windows software raid device. Not to be confused for fakeraid (chipset raid) or hardware raid which you can boot from.

Think of it this way: How will Windows load and startup the software RAID if the drivers and software to start the RAID is on the RAID that you're trying to start? Simple answer: You can't.

I found out it is possible to boot from a Windows software RAID - there's a Microsoft document that tells you how to set it up:
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...g Disk Mirroring for Windows Server 2012.docx